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Baseball isn’t boring and the CW isn’t stupid, at least when it comes to the Savannah Bananas, the Georgia-based team that has rewritten the rules around the classic American pastime. The network has picked up rights to broadcast the July 27 Bananas game at Citizen’s Bank Park in Philadelphia.

“Banana Ball” incorporates humor, gymnastics, lip syncs and snappy dance choreography in a minor league baseball game with rules that definitely don’t match those of Major League Baseball — though many of the players once had MLB aspirations. This year the team has sold out 18 major league ballparks, plus three football stadiums with capacities of more than 70,000.

The CW in recent years has been leaning into live sports coverage, which has generally been delivering ratings results in a rapidly changing TV-viewing landscape. The network has the NASCAR Xfinity Series, WWE NXT on Tuesday nights, Grand Slam Track, AVP beach volleyball on summer Saturdays, ACC and Pac-12 football games in the fall and, starting next year, PBA professional bowling.

The Savannah Bananas come with a built-in audience earned via posts on TikTok, Facebook Reels and the like. The team has 10 million followers on TikTok alone.

The Savannah Bananas, a minor league baseball club, went on their first ever “World Tour” this year, taking their unique brand of baseball to various cities across America.

“We’ve always been very clear about our goal,” Bananas owner Jesse Cole told The Times in 2022. “We exist to make baseball fun.”

“It’s all about energy. We want to give people energy, delivering it every second, from the moment we open the gates at two o’clock until the last fan leaves at 11,” he added over the weekend, when the team played to a sellout crowd at Anaheim Stadium.

There’s definitely an audience appetite for the Savannah team: There are tickets available for games in August and September, but only through a lottery — and the wait list for the lottery is more than 3 million names long. Last season’s games drew a million fans total.

On Friday, the only way into the Anaheim game was through the resale market. Hours before the first pitch, the lowest price (fees and taxes included) for a pair of Bananas tickets on StubHub was $209.52, while it took a mere $171.72 to snag a pair of tickets to the Yankees-Dodgers series opener at Dodger Stadium the same night.

Who needs Shohei Ohtani and Aaron Judge anyway: Banana Ball has the Savannah team facing rival outfits the Texas Tailgaters, the Firefighters, the Party Animals and the Visitors.

And while Ohtani and Judge can be counted on for multiple home runs, only the Bananas deliver baby races, a dancing umpire and backflips before balls are caught in the outfield. Plus the games are limited to two hours max, something even the much-loved MLB pitch clock can’t deliver.

“The Savannah Bananas have taken the sports world by storm through their high-energy blend of baseball and entertainment that connects with viewers of all ages,” Mike Perman, senior vice president of CW Sports, said in a statement Tuesday.

“We are thrilled to partner with them for their broadcast television debut, and we cannot wait to bring our audience every unpredictable play in front of what promises to be an electric atmosphere in Philadelphia.”

“Banana Ball on The CW is a no-brainer,” Bananas owner Cole added in that news release. “After seeing their recent commitment to sports, we knew this could be a great partnership. With the speed and entertainment of Banana Ball, we look forward to creating new fans together in the years to come.”

Times staff writer David Wharton and Times fellow Anthony De Leon contributed to this report.

CNN’s chief national security correspondent Alex Marquardt, whose 2021 story on a military contractor led to a defamation suit loss in court, announced Monday he is leaving the network.

“Tough to say goodbye but it’s been an honor to work among the very best in the business,” Marquardt wrote on X. “Profound thank you to my comrades on the National Security team & the phenomenal teammates I’ve worked with in the US and abroad.”

Earlier this year, a Florida jury awarded $5 million to former CIA operative Zachary Young after a jury found he was defamed in a November 2021 report by Marquardt on how Afghans were being charged thousands of dollars to be evacuated after the U.S. military withdrawal from their country.

After deliberations began on punitive damages, CNN attorneys reached an undisclosed settlement with Young.

A CNN representative declined to comment on Marquardt’s departure, calling it a personnel matter. One network insider who was not authorized to comment publicly said there was a feeling among many people at CNN that Marquardt had to go after the loss in court.

Marquardt has served as CNN’s chief national security correspondent since 2017. He was previously a foreign correspondent for ABC News.

Young lives in Vienna and has his business based in Florida. He was seeking $14,500 for getting people out of Afghanistan after the chaotic U.S. military withdrawal. He claimed his services were limited to corporate sponsors.

The business was described in Marqurdt’s report alongside interviews with Afghans who spoke about desperate efforts by people to escape, but they had no connection to Young.

Young’s suit said his inclusion in the story, which used the term “black market” in an on-screen banner, implied that his activity was criminal, even though Marquardt’s segment made no such charge. “Black market” was also used in the introduction of the report when it first ran on “The Lead With Jake Tapper,” other CNN programs and the network’s website and social media accounts.

CNN lawyers argued that the term “black market” was used to describe an unregulated activity, even though the dictionary definition describes it as illegal.

Young claimed the story destroyed his reputation and ability to earn a living — driving his annual income from $350,000 to zero — and caused severe emotional and psychological distress.

MSNBC’s Nicolle Wallace has delivered some sharp criticism of President Trump since she became a host on the progressive-leaning cable news network in 2017.

So it’s surprising that her new podcast shares its name with one of Trump’s regular boasts about his team: “The Best People.”

“I thought he had abandoned it,” Wallace, 53, told The Times. “But I actually think ‘the best people’ was one of his best messages in 2016.”

“He abandoned it officially when he picked Matt Gaetz,” she added, referring to Trump’s first choice for attorney general.

Each week on “The Best People,” starting Monday, Wallace will have lengthy conversations with actors, musicians, thought leaders and other figures outside of politics. The guest on the first episode is actor and fellow podcaster Jason Bateman, followed by Sarah Jessica Parker, music producer Jimmy Jam, folk singer Joan Baez and Milwaukee Bucks coach Doc Rivers in coming weeks.

The jump into podcasting comes as the network looks for more ways to reach the growing number of consumers who are no longer watching cable TV.

The network says its existing audio podcasts, which include series from hosts Rachel Maddow, Chris Hayes and Jen Psaki, will top 10 million downloads in May.

“Our goal is to meet our audience where they are and to bring the talent of our hosts and anchors to them in those spaces,” said Madeleine Haeringer, MSNBC’s senior vice president of digital, audio and longform. “It’s not a one-size-fits-all formula — but instead, tailoring each project to both the host and the platform.”

Wallace said she was ready to expand her role at MSNBC before the corporate changes. Podcasting appealed to her because, as a working mom, she knows many women aren’t available to watch her daily program in the afternoon.

Her branching out into less overtly political territory is somewhat unexpected.

The former Bush White House communications director’s tenure on the ABC talk show “The View” was brief, partly due to her lack of pop culture expertise.

That’s not a concern this time around, she said. The guests she solicited for “The Best People” are coming to the table to discuss their own advocacy issues apart from the kind of instant political analysis presented on her MSNBC program “Deadline: White House.”

Wallace connected with Jimmy Jam when they discussed creating a “We Are the World” type of musical production to aid Ukraine. She knew Rivers through his social justice activism (as coach of the Los Angeles Clippers, he had to guide the players through the scandal over former owner Donald Sterling’s racist comments) and Parker for her devotion to literacy programs.

The podcast format allows them to open up in a way that doesn’t always happen on live TV.

“For some reason, people sitting in front of their computer screens on the Zoom are even more candid and forthcoming about how they feel,” Wallace said.

Wallace is wading into digital media at a time when MSNBC is in transition. The channel, along with other NBCUniversal cable outlets, is being spun off from current owner Comcast into a new company called Versant.

Comcast is getting out of the cable channel business, with the exception of its potent reality brand Bravo, out of concern about the steady decline of the pay TV audience. Over the last 10 years, cord-cutting has reduced the number of cable homes MSNBC reaches by 33%.

MSNBC also saw a mass exodus of viewers just after the presidential election, as its loyal left-leaning audience tuned out after Trump’s victory.

The ratings have gradually climbed back up, with MSNBC maintaining its second place position behind perennial cable leader Fox News but well ahead of third place CNN. In May, the network was up 24% from the lows it hit in November and December, but is still down 35% compared to the presidential campaign-elevated levels of a year ago, according to Nielsen.

But leadership at Versant has it made clear that MSNBC will continue to cater to a politically progressive audience.

Wallace believes the commitment to the network’s point of view has only deepened under new management. “It’s a culture that really rewards deep wonky coverage of politics,” she said. “[MSNBC President] Rebecca Kutler has come in and tripled down on all of that.”

The spinoff requires separating MSNBC from NBC News, where some journalists were uneasy with the intensity of partisan commentary on the cable network. Versant is hiring its own newsgathering team — as many as 100 journalists — including justice and intelligence correspondent Ken Dilanian, who is moving over from NBC.

“To work for someone who is hiring reporters at a time when we’re looking at an administration that seems a little meh about the Constitution is pretty forward leaning,” Wallace said.

She was inspired to try something new by the extracurricular activities of her husband, the New York Times’ Pulitzer Prize-winning reporter Michael S. Schmidt, who co-created the Netflix thriller series “Zero Day” with former NBC News President Noah Oppenheim.

“Michael enjoyed it so much it gave me the idea to add something that is a little outside my comfort zone,” Wallace said.

Wallace met Schmidt, 41, at MSNBC, where he is a contributor. They married in 2022 and a year later had their first child via surrogate. Wallace also has a 13-year-old son, Liam, from her first marriage.

While Wallace and Schmidt have a business-like dynamic when they appear together on the program, family matters creep in off-camera.

“When we are both on set, my son is texting us about dinner,” Wallace said. “During the breaks, we’re never talking about the rule of law. We’re talking about logistics.”

CBS has notched another small victory in its legal battle with Sony Pictures Television, winning an appellate court ruling that allows the network to continue to distribute “Wheel of Fortune” and “Jeopardy!” as its court case continues.

Sony owns the shows and produces them on its Culver City lot.

Last month, a Los Angeles judge ruled that Sony was no longer obligated to provide episodes to CBS, which has served for decades as the conduit, delivering batches of episodes to television stations around the country.

After that ruling, the Paramount Global-owned network appealed. A three-judge appellate panel paused the order and asked both sides to submit their arguments.

On Wednesday, the judges wrote that they had reviewed filings from both sides. In a one-page order, the panel granted CBS’ request to keep the stay in place, allowing the network to continue its distribution duties during the appeal .

CBS maintains Sony lacks the legal right to unilaterally severe ties.

Sony terminated its distribution deal with CBS in August and later filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit that claimed CBS entered into unauthorized licensing deals for the shows and then paid itself a commission. Sony also maintained that rounds of budget cuts within CBS had hobbled the network’s efforts to support the two shows.

In February, Sony attempted to cut CBS out of the picture, escalating the dispute.

CBS has said Sony’s claims “are rooted in the fact they simply don’t like the deal the parties agreed to decades ago.”

CBS takes in up to 40% of the fees that TV stations pay to carry the shows. The company took over the distribution of the program when it acquired syndication company King World Productions in 1999.

King World struck deals with the original producer, Merv Griffin Enterprises, in the early 1980s to distribute “Jeopardy!” and “Wheel.” Sony later acquired Griffin’s company, but those early agreements remain in effect.

As viewing of traditional TV has declined due to competition for streaming in recent years, the two daily game shows have continued to thrive and are among the most-watched programs in television.

A Sony representative was not immediately available for comment.

May 27 (UPI) — A new U.S.-Israeli mechanism for delivering humanitarian assistance into Gaza that bypasses the United Nations and other aid agencies in favor of armed private contractors was underway on Tuesday.

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation said Monday it had begun distributing food to residents after lorry loads of supplies had been unloaded at secure hubs in the besieged Palestinian enclave — but did not provide details of quantities or the areas where it was being distributed.

“More trucks with aid will be delivered Tuesday, with the flow of aid increasing each day,” it said in a statement.

However, only around a dozen men with boxes under their arms were shown leaving an unspecified site in accompanying photos, according to the BBC.

Sources, who told The Washington Post that the first shipments went to a facility called Secure Distribution Site One near the so-called Philadelphi Corridor close to the border with Egypt, confirmed that not many people came to receive the aid on offer but that the operation went off without incident.

Under the plan, private contractors will secure supply corridors feeding aid distribution sites, designated by Israel, where pre-security-cleared Palestinians will be handed boxes of food and basic hygiene items weighing as much as 44 pounds. No explanation has been provided on how the elderly or disabled would cope with such loads.

The U.N. and traditional aid agencies reject the scheme, which aims to prevent aid from allegedly being stolen and resold by Hamas to fund its military operations against Israel, saying it goes against humanitarian ethics and “weaponizes” the issue of aid.

GHF Chief Operating Officer David Burke resigned a day after the body’s Executive Director and former U.S. Marine, Jake Wood, resigned, saying the scheme fell short of the central humanitarian tenets of “humanity, neutrality, impartiality, and independence.”

The board of GHF called Wood’s departure two months into the job “disappointing,” but vowed to press on with its work, with the goal of getting aid to more than 1 million people in Gaza by Sunday.

Burke did not immediately comment on his decision to resign from GHF, which is registered as a non-profit in both Switzerland and the U.S. state of Delaware.

GHF’s mission director in Gaza, John Acree, a former United States Agency for International Development official, has been appointed as Wood’s acting replacement.

The start of the GHF mission came a week after Israel lifted an 11-week aid blockade after coming under intense international pressure amid warnings of an imminent famine in Gaza, including unprecedented threats of “concrete actions” from Britain, France and Canada.

Aside from practical issues facing the infirm, the injured or children fending for themselves, the international aid community said the scheme would cause more displacement, place thousands of people in harm’s way, link aid to political and military goals and establish an intolerable precedent.

Norwegian Refugee Council General Secretary Jan Egeland called for a return to the tried and tested system developed by the U.N. and international aid agencies over many decades.

He accused GHF of being “militarised, privatised, politicized” and “not in conformity with neutrality.”